March 29, 2024

The Unintended Cost of Being Popular

Sept. 18, 2015

There are impending upgrades. But no problem – minor upgrades are worth it just to be in Traverse City, even if it is for only two or three months a year.

Sound familiar? It should. Escalating home prices in TC are on an upward trend I only wish existed for my 401k. Interestingly, most real estate purchases are off the waterfront, with 82 percent of home sales April–June occurring inland and the largest number of non-waterfront homes for sale priced above $400,000. High-end condo developments still under construction will push this figure even higher in the very near future. Condos on State Street hover around $565K, while developments on Washington Street and Bay Street leap up to $600K and $700K respectively.

The bottom line: The Traverse City market is on fire. The tax base is exploding and the region hasn’t seen this kind of real estate market since"¦well, never. But this kind of gentrified growth can harbor unintended consequences. The changing socioeconomic make-up of the region is brewing its own unique set of headaches for logical long-term viability, especially for the downtown area.

Sure, the higher home sale prices have unleashed the "Proposal A" kraken and tax reassessments have translated into more green locally, but more is not always better. The increasing property values and rising tax bills have created a barrier to affordable housing. Young families are not moving into the city. Numerous condo developments could have offered an affordable option to younger families, but the building designs are not conducive for attracting year-round residents with children. A half million dollars for less than 1200 square feet, no basement and no yard are not exactly your ideal "starter" homes.

Result: Traverse City is losing its younger population, and along with it, workers for the service industry. The abundance of "help wanted" signs in storefront windows is anecdotal evidence of an entry-level worker shortage. In March, Michigan Works identified a regional worker shortage. In May, The Ticker ran the article: "Labor Shortage Hits Front Street." These are troubling signs for an area amidst an aggressive growth stage and so ripe with opportunity.

This "hot" real estate market has inadvertently become a harbinger of invisible socioeconomic division and geographical exclusivity. Young families have been relegated to the outlying areas. When their children come of teenage working age, how will they get to jobs in a city without any affordable mass transit system? Unwittingly, the real estate boon is creating regional homogeneity with the downtown area the epicenter for seasonal affluence.

Traverse City has "arrived." This past April, Smithsonian Magazine named it "one of the best small towns to visit" sharing honors with such perennial favorites as Nantucket and St. Simon’s Island. Condé Nast Traveler recently named TC one of "19 cities around the world identified as up-and-coming food scenes." To those of us who’ve lived here for some time, this comes as no surprise. More surprising is how long it has taken the rest of the world to discover what we’ve known all along: There is no better place to live.

But this didn’t happen overnight. Traverse City has been guided by astute decisionmaking and thoughtful, planned development.

"Build it and they will come" seems to be part of the grand scheme of things, but it presents an important question: Who’s coming? Based on recent home sales, the people coming to Traverse City are wealthy; but how many are year-round residents integrating into the community?

Space is a problem. As with other cities faced with high housing demand and low space availability, the answer is to go up. Two ninestory buildings downtown are in the works. Will more be inevitable? Vertical housing, however, will only add to the existing downtown parking problems, but at greater risk is the identity of Traverse City as a small waterside oasis.

Once development turns skyward, population density becomes a major concern. Visit any one of the numerous ocean-side Florida cities and you can see what lies ahead if TC continues in this vein. The quaintness of many of those cities was lost when development was left unchecked and allowed to "go vertical." Undeniably, it brought a lot of money, but it changed their landscapes and many cities lost their uniqueness.

Swimming in West Bay should not replicate a dip in Lake Michigan Chicago-style. At the heart of it all is identity. What makes our Traverse City so wonderful that national publications are now including us in their "best of " lists? It’s a question worth pondering before we build up.

In 2003, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm launched the "Cool Cities Initiative" to create attractive, vibrant, diverse, and affordable urban areas. These cities would house a diverse population "including young knowledge workers."

Traverse City is a cool city right now. We need to look for ways to keep it "cool" for a greater variety of people or we face a kind of cultural stagnation. The spectrum of thoughts, ideas, and energy is enriched when derived from a diverse population. Although contemporary national politics would have us believe that thine enemy is anyone who thinks differently from the herd, we need not subscribe to, nor mimic the myopic idiocy of our elected officials.

We should, instead, cultivate our sense of community in Traverse City by welcoming different kinds of people with different opinions. Individually, we grow from learning and we learn best from being amongst others that are not like us. We need to attract and retain residents from all walks of life to continue to grow a cool TC.

If, however, the goal is to create "sameness" within TC, well then, we just might be on our way. But in a longer vision for our region, do we want a Traverse City or a Traverse Club?

Todd Manns is an educator at the Career Tech Center in Traverse City who designs and implements ELA instruction.

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